Bogus Weather Hype

I agree although we got 11" of snow from the storm. Still I think the most
fun was that the Chicago news crews went out on the expressways to show that
they were all moving normally and ended up causing a huge gapers block that
doubled travel time. The news people are now covering a story about how news
crews affect traffic, Geesh!

In the Chicago area we get an average of almost a foot of snow in January.
Well we hit our average in a 24 hour period, worth mentioning but hardly a
major news event, after all it snows every January in Chicago since the
Silurian epoch!

But we have 24 hour news and weather so they have to talk about something,
lord knows they could not actually cover something in depth so just make
hype out 1 or 2 things.

Scott

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Scott F. Migaldi, K9PO
MI-150972
PP-ASEL-IA

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-------------------------------------
"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:CgZCd.620242$wV.514014@attbi_s54...
Is it just me, or does it seem like weather forecasting has gone off the
deep end?

Once again, we've been deluged with "Winter Storm Warnings" in the Midwest
that have turned out to produce a few inches of snow. As one station
(primarily the Weather Channel) starts to hype the coming "huge storm" all
the local stations feel compelled to jump on the bandwagon. They, in
turn,
start running live segments of "Doppler Radar" and serious talking heads
showing all of us that it is -- *gasp!* -- actually SNOWING outside!

Imagine! In Iowa! In January!

Then, the inevitable school closings follow, as the head of the school
board
is showed wringing his hands on live TV, pining for the "safety of the
kids." This is followed by dire warnings not to travel unless "absolutely
necessary"...

Meanwhile, the storm peters out after a few inches of snow, the kids play
outside all day, the malls are packed, and the adults laugh it off as just
another screwed up weather forecast.

Sorry, but this situation seems to have NOTHING to do with meteorology.
I
took weather classes in college, and have been a keen observer of it all
my
life. I was able to take one look at the radar and satellite pictures,
and
knew immediately that they were blowing sunshine up our butts yet again.

I think it's all about ratings, and the public is being misled on a grand
scale, at an annual cost of hundreds of millions of dollars in lost
productivity. Worst of all, NO ONE is taking their warnings seriously
anymore (except the schools, who love the paid time off), so when we
really
DO get hit with a blizzard, no one will be prepared.

When I was a kid in Wisconsin, if they had closed school every time we got
3
inches of snow, we'd have had the whole winter off!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"